White House officials are concerned FBI Director Chris Wray may quit if House Intelligence Committee Chair Devin Nunes’ (R-CA) memo purporting to show anti-Trump prejudice among federal law enforcement officials is released, CNN reported Thursday.
Senior White House officials are working on a solution that will satisfy both President Donald Trump and Wray, as well as other law enforcement officials, like Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, according to officials with knowledge of the matter who spoke with CNN.
While Wray has not explicitly threatened to resign, the President’s Chief of Staff John Kelly reportedly “believes it is a real possibly” that Wray could leave if the memo goes public and he is striving to mediate the issue, according to CNN.
NBC’s Pete Williams reports that Wray has no intention of quitting over the memo.
Per @PeteWilliamsNBC #ChrisWray has no intention of quitting if memo is released over his objections
— Andrea Mitchell (@mitchellreports) February 1, 2018
The White House did not immediately respond to TPM’s request for comment.
In a rare public statement Wednesday, the FBI expressed “grave concerns about material omissions of fact” in the document, which reportedly alleges FBI officials abused the FISA process when seeking a warrant to surveil Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
CNN reported on Thursday, citing an unnamed senior administration official, that the White House has signed off on several redactions to the document, but continues to reject requests from the FBI and the Department of Justice to block its release.
The White House confirmed Thursday that Trump has read the memo and White House officials expect to get a final decision about the release of the document on Thursday, according to CNN.
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